56 



ARMY OPERATIONS. 



took place. After movivg thirty miles, the 

 army bivouacked for the night. On the next 

 morning the march was resumed, six miles 

 to the crossing of Cane River. Here the enemy 

 appeared in a strong position to dispute the 

 crossing of the river. A flank movement 

 through an almost impassable wood was made 

 upon the enemy's position, from which he was 

 driven, and the crossing secured. The pursuit 

 was continued by the enemy until Alexandria 

 was reached on the 27th. 



Although Gen. Banks had declared in the 

 commencement of the campaign that his occu- 

 pation of the country would be permanent, 

 such was now the state of affairs as to require 

 his withdrawal, the season having passed for 

 operating with any chance of success. Prepa- 

 rations for this object were soon commenced. 

 The position of the fleet was most serious, and 

 its extrication is thus related by Rear-Admiral 

 Porter : 



MISSISSIPPI SQUADRON, FLAGSHIP BLACK HAWK, I 

 MOUTH RED RIVER, May 16th, ISM. ( 



SIR : I have the honor to inform you that the ves- 

 sels lately caught by low water above the falls at 

 Alexandria, have been released from their unpleasant 

 position. The water had fallen so low that I had no 

 hope or expectation of getting the vessels out this 

 season, and, as the army had made arrangements to 

 evacuate the country, I saw nothing before me but 

 the destruction of the best part of the Mississippi 

 squadron. 



There seems to have been an especial Providence 

 looking out for us in providing a man equal to the 

 emergency. Lieut.-Col. Bailey, Acting Engineer of 

 the 19th Army Corps, proposed a plan of build- 

 ing a series of dams across the rocks at the falls, 

 and raising the water high enough to let the vessels 

 pass over. This proposition looked like madness, 

 and the best engineers ridiculed it ; but Col. Bailey 

 was so sanguine of success that I requested to have 

 it done, and he entered heartily into the work. Pro- 

 visions were short and forage was almost out, and 

 the dam was promised to be finished in ten days or 

 the army would have to leave us. I was doubtful 

 about the time, but I had no doubt about the ultimate 

 success, if time would only permit. Gen. Banks 

 placed at the disposal of Col. Bailey all the forces he 

 required, consisting of some three thousand men 

 and two or three hundred wagons. All the neighbor- 

 ing steam-mills were torn down for material ; two or 

 three regiments of Maine men were set at work fell- 

 ing trees, and on the second day after my arrival in 

 Alexandria, from Grand Ecore, the work had fairly 

 begun. 



Trees were falling with great rapidity, teams were 

 moving in all directions, bringing in brick and stone ; 

 quarries were opened ; fiat-boats were built to bring 

 stone down from above, and every man seemed to be 

 working with a vigor I have seldom seen equalled, 

 while perhaps not one in fifty believed in the under- 

 taking. These falls are about a mile in length, filled 

 with rugged rocks, over which at the present stage 

 of water it seemed to be impossible to make a chan- 

 nel. 



Tbe work was commenced by running out from the 

 left bank of the river a tree dam, made of the bodies 

 of very large trees, brush, brick, and stone, cross- 

 tied with heavy timber, and strengthened in every 

 way which ingenuity could devise. This was run 

 out about three hundred feet into the river; four 

 large coal barges were then filled with brick and 

 sunk at the end of it. From the right bank of 

 the river, cribs filled with stone were built out to 

 meet the barges, all of which were successfully ac- 



complished, notwithstanding there was a current 

 running of nine miles an hour, which threatened to 

 sweep every thing before it. 



It will take too much time to enter into the details 

 of this truly wonderful work ; suffice it to say that 

 the dam had nearly reached completion in eight 

 days' working time, and the water had risen suffi- 

 ciently on the upper falls to allow the Fort Hindman, 

 Osage, and Neosho, to get down and be ready to pass 

 the dam. In another day it would have been high 

 enough to enable all the other vessels to pass the 

 upper falls. Unfortunately, on the morning of the 

 9th inst., the pressure of water became so great that 

 it swept away two of the stone-barges which swung 

 in below the dam on one side. Seeing this unfortu- 

 nate accident, I jumped on a horse and rode up to 

 where the upper vessels were anchored, and ordered 

 the Lexington to pass the upper falls if possible, and 

 immediately attempt to go through the dam. I 

 thought I might be able to save the four vessels below, 

 not knowing whether the persons employed on the 

 work would ever have the heart to renew the enter- 

 prise. 



The Lexington succeeded in getting over the upper 

 falls just in time, the water rapidly falling as she 

 was passing over. She then steered directly for the 

 opening in the dam, through which the water was 

 rushing so furiously that it seemed as if nothing but 

 destruction awaited her. Thousands of beating 

 hearts looked on anxious for the result. 



The silence was so great as the Lexington ap- 

 proached the dam that a pin might almost have 

 been heard to fall. She entered the gap with a full 

 head of steam on, pitched down the roaring tor- 

 rent, made two or three spasmodic rolls, hung for 

 a moment on the rocks below, was then swept into 

 deep water by the currents, and rounded to safely 

 into the bank. 



Thirty thousand voices rose in one deafening cheer, 

 and universal joy seemed to pervade the face of every 

 man present. The Neosho fa.lbwed next all her 

 hatches battened down, and every precaution taken 

 against accident. She did not fare as well as the 

 Lexington, her pilot having become frightened as he 

 approached the abyss, and stopped her engine when 

 I particularly ordered a full head of steam to be car- 

 ried. The result was that for a moment her hull dis- 

 appeared from sight, under the water. Every one 

 thought she was lost. She rose, however, swept 

 along over the rocks with the current, and fortunate- 

 ly escaped with only one hole in her bottom, which 

 was stopped in the* course of an hour. The Hind- 

 man and Osage both came through beautifully with- 

 out touching a thing, and I thought if I was only 

 fortunate enough to get my large vessels as well over 

 the falls my fleet once more would do good service 

 on the Mississippi. 



The accident to the dam, instead of disheartening 

 Col. Bailey, only induced him to renew his exertions, 

 after he had seen the success of getting four vessels 

 through. The noble-hearted soldiers, seeing their 

 labor of the last eight days swept away in a moment, 

 cheerfully went to work to repair damages, being 

 confident now that all the gunboats would be finally 

 brought over. The men had been working for eight 

 days and nights, up to their necks in water, in the 

 broiling sun, cutting trees and wheeling bricks, and 

 nothing but good humor prevailed among them. On 

 the whole, it was very fortunate the dam was carried 

 away, as the two barges that were swept away from the 

 centre swung around against some rocks on the left 

 and made a fine cushion for the vessels, and pre- 

 vented them, as it afterward appeared, from running 

 on certain destruction. 



The force of the water and the current being too 

 great to construct a continuous dam of six hundred 

 feet across the river in so short a time, Col. Bailey 

 determined to leave a gap of fifty-five feet in the dam, 

 and build a series of wing dams on the upper falls. 

 This was accomplished in three days' time, and on 



